Which Historic Aviation Event

Shortly before the capitulation of Italy one of the most remarkable broadcasts of WW2 took place – a live recording of a bombing raid on Berlin. Richard Dimbleby’s report of his flight with Guy Gibson earlier in the year, and other subsequent reports, were recorded after he got back to Britain. This time an engineer, and a correspondent flew together on a mission and captured something of what it was really like to be onboard an RAF bomber. According to Wynford Vaughan-Thomas’ memoirs the engineer had even volunteered, – he wanted to give, “my two youngsters something to talk about.” Thirty-five years old Vaughan-Thomas, on the other hand, had been ‘hand-picked’ by his superiors.

The raid took place on the night of the 3 and 4 September 1943 with the BBC men flying onboard a 207 Squadron Lancaster from RAF Langer, nine miles south east of Nottingham. There were 316 Lancasters and four Mosquitos on the raid; the Mossies were there to act as decoys by dropping flares far away from the main bombing force in order to attract the night fighters. The pilot of the Lancaster, EM-F for Freddie, was Flight Lieutenant Ken Letford, a twenty-five year old who had flown over fifty missions. The remaining crew members were Charlie Stewart; engineer, Bill Bray; the bomb aimer, James Fieldhouse; mid-upper gunner, Con Connelly, navigator, Bill Sparkes; the wireless operator and Henry (Harry) Devenish; rear gunner, who shot down the Messerschmitt ME-110.

This raid was the last in a two-week phase of attacks that formed the opening moves in Bomber Command’s ‘Battle of Berlin’. On this raid 22 Lancasters were lost, around 7% of the total, and it was not terribly successful. Most of the bombs fell in Charlottenburg and Moabit, which were predominantly residential areas. Several factories in the Siemensstadt area were damaged, but perhaps most damaging was of all was the fact that one of Berlin’s largest breweries was put out of commission.

I would love to have been on that flight. Particularly as they got home, unlike many other aircraft and their crews.

The recording is available on line, but I’ve lost the link!

Would have loved to share the moment – 15th May 1941 at 7.35 p.m when the Gloster E28/39 took to the air – taking us one revolutionary step into the future of aviation..

Wouldn’t it have been great to walk into the Wright’s bicycle shop… …If you sketched out the way the aircraft would develop, including its use as a mass killing machine, I wonder what they would have thought, and then done?

Moggy

Taken out a patent :diablo: :diablo: :diablo:

Roger Smith.

I can think of several places I’d very much like to go back in time and be present to witness and take a video camera.

31st of March 1903, Waitohi, South Canterbury, NZ, to witness what really occurred on the road through that small community. Did Richard Pearse really take off and fly?

17th of March 1928, Wigram Aerodrome, Christchurch, NZ, to witness the Southern Cross with Charles Kingsford Smith and his crew arrive after the first ever successful crossing by flight of the Tasman Sea.

1944 – RNZAF Station Ardmore, to watch the Kittyhawks, Corsairs and harvards among other things training in the circuit, just as my father and grandparents did from their farm at the end of the runway.

Early 1940, RNZAF Woodbourne, to see the Vickers Vincents and Vildebeestes training pilots who’d soon be flying Spitfires and Hrricanes in the Battle of britain, etc, and the Baffins and Gordons of the Wellington GR Squadron defending the Cook Strait region.

Suva in Fiji, early 1942. The RNZAF’s Singapore flying boats and Vincents and Hudsons, and the USN’s Catalinas and USAAF P-39’s in the skies above. Awesome.

There are too many more to write really…

Go on, Moggy, I dare you!

It’s not a question of ‘dare’

I’d like the time to think it through and to write an elegant and practical synopsis for an episode based on that storyline.

It is difficult in that the conceit is the Doctor being unable / unwilling to do anything that alters the future as it was/is, so he would have to be the one trying to put the case for the aircraft as good. It therefore needs somebody to outline the negative uses of the aircraft, presumably the assistant of the moment.

Then you need some sort of peril?

Moggy

Go on, Moggy, I dare you! Like an aeronautical take on Terminator 2! 😀

I must write to the Doctor Who team. Sounds like a great plot for an episode.

Moggy

Wouldn’t it have been great to walk into the Wright’s bicycle shop as a believer and to give them a few pointers? Ailerons for instance, and maybe dihedral.

If you sketched out the way the aircraft would develop, including its use as a mass killing machine, I wonder what they would have thought, and then done?

Moggy

Lympne, September 1924

I think being at Mildenhall 10 years later would be a close second.

Roger Smith.

As has been said already several good suggestions here and some I considered myself. I’m with you on that one.

It would also have been nice to have been around early on 25th July 1909 to be able to greet a certain French airman with a very English welcome ‘Good Moaning’.

Baginton King’s Cup was very exciting but on the two occasions I went felt cheated as the first aircraft away (Turbulent & Tipsy Nipper) in each case won by a street. Was hoping for the Hawk Speed 6 or Gemini to come 1st.

Any Kings Cup race at Baginton in late 50s or early 60s (I’ve posted the photos here before)

And a few Farnboroughs too from the same period.

August 1952, woodford, VX770’s first flight
September 1953, farnborough 770 & 777 with the 4 707’s
may 1944 mohne dam,
may 1982 black buck 1
first flight of the Tsr2

as for things i have seen, to go back with a dslr

September 1981, finningley Vulcan scramble
april 31st 1984 woodford, 50 sqn flypast
1987 binbrook lightning airshow

Hmmm,
Calshot first week of September 1929…and then maybe up to Eastleigh early March 1936.

Camera in hand of course!

Chumpy.

Flight deck of XM607 on Black Buck 1… mind you, with my weight, they probably would have run out of fuel…..

Failing that, I like the idea of being anywhere on the south east coast during 1940…

How wierd is that, as I was reading through this thread my mind was made up on the Black Buck 1 raid and then I read your post.

Failing XM607 I would like to have been on the flight deck of the one that had to divert to Rio (forget the particulars, my head is fried after a long shift), to witness what they went through and the calm profesionalism with which they carried it out.

Regards,

John.

Flight deck of XM607 on Black Buck 1… mind you, with my weight, they probably would have run out of fuel…..

Failing that, I like the idea of being anywhere on the south east coast during 1940…

So many choices…a lot of good suggestions…

Kitty Hawk – 1903…About 10 year ago I met the niece of the Wrights. She was old enough to have known both of them, yet yound enough to still be with us in the 90s. Her husband, an attorney, served as executor of Orville’s estate. I was more excited meeting her than any of the celebrities I’ve met.

Paris-1927 Imagine being part of that croud…from the old newsreels it seems to be a rock concert multiplied by 10.

Kent -1940…I have a friend who is a farmer near Canterbury. His father…still alive at nearly 100…watched the battles while working in the field.
He still talks about a German bomber that force landed on their land, and its fuel powered farm equipment for weks afterward.

Just about any 8th AF or Bomber Command base in 1944…
I would have been interesting to be a “fly on the wall” watching the crews get their briefing, watching them go out and counting them back…

Being in a Mosquito on one of their low level raids…

And while not being particularly historic, I find just being at any airport is fun. Last evening not long before sunset a friend flew over in his yellow J-3. The setting sun made the yellow seem extra bright against the darkening sky while a Steadman did circuits.

While we may have missed out on the historic events and great figures, there is still magic to be found.

Im with Moggy on this one, Kent 1940. Failing that, any of the airfields used by the RAF in France during 1940.

‘Circus 68’ – To see what really did happen on the day Douglas Bader was downed and where his aircraft actually did end up.

On a more light hearted note perhaps the Stork hotel. 🙂

Mark

Had a question like this a bit back, mines the same answer as then, 200ft above the Normandy beaches 6th June 1944 to watch it all unfold.
Europes finest hour. Regards Phil.

Lympne, September 1924

I think being at Mildenhall 10 years later would be a close second.

Roger Smith.

Avro 698 first flight August 1952

Or, Ascension in May 1982 to see the departure, and the return, of Black Buck One